How To Tell If Your Child Has Head Lice

If your kid comes home complaining of an extremely itchy scalp, inspect it right away. This could be the warning signs of head lice.Remember that this isn’t a question of hygiene but that they transfer due to contact.

When you became a parent, you probably never imagined yourself hunting for lice in your child’s hair. But that’s just what you (or someone) will have to do if you suspect that your child is infested.

When the bad news comes from a school

Many schools do regular lice checks during the school year, examining every child’s head. If they find lice, they’ll let you know. Be sure to do your own checking, though, to confirm their finding.

(C) verywell.com

You may instead get a note warning that someone in your child’s class or school has lice. That’s your signal to check your own child’s head. It’s best to do this as soon as possible, because the sooner you find the lice, the easier they are to handle. And if you do find lice, you’ll need to check (and possibly treat) the whole family.

How to inspect your child’s head

The sesame-seed-size creatures and their teeny-tiny eggs are quite hard to spot. To find out whether you need to take action, try the following two- to three-step process.

If you can’t spot them via a visual inspection (step 2), try wet combing (step 3). A 2009 study in the Archives of Dermatology found that “wet-combing” accurately identified active head lice infestations in 90 percent of cases. In contrast, visual inspections accurately identified 29 percent.